


i used to keep my dark a secret (heart in pieces)

by TheTartWitch



Series: One-shots of AUs [21]
Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Aro loves her like a daughter, Bella kills and eats her own children, Dark i guess, Didyme has the power in the relationship, F/F, F/M, Service BDSM, Silent Bella, Volturi!Bella, always a vampire Bella, he just wants her to be happy, honestly small hints of, if you know what i mean, kinda fucked up Bella, let me know if you think this needs more tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 18:37:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11041950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: When I was seventeen, married to as rich a man as my uncle Aro could find and already with my third child, vampires attacked our great city. My husband’s scream was worrying; he was a strong man, a warrior praised by the emperor, but he sobbed as my uncle tore him to pieces.“Isabella,” he called, backlight by the flames climbing our neighbors’ house and bloodied.“Uncle,” I whispered, knowing he would hear, and smiled.





	i used to keep my dark a secret (heart in pieces)

**Author's Note:**

> So a lot of this stemmed from the fact that I wanted a badass, Volturi Bella and apparently nobody has yet delivered. so.  
> Also, some parts of the story are left deliberately vague. Not gonna spoiler, but if you really want a list there'll be one in the end notes.

When I was seventeen, married to as rich a man as my uncle Aro could find and already with my third child, vampires attacked our great city. My husband’s scream was worrying; he was a strong man, a warrior praised by the emperor, but he sobbed as my uncle tore him to pieces.

“Isabella,” he called, backlight by the flames climbing our neighbors’ house and bloodied. 

“Uncle,” I whispered, knowing he would hear, and smiled.

\--

I ate my children three days later. Aro had saved them for me, in a pen with the other ‘survivors’, and they didn’t cry when I killed them. They loved me, trusted me not to hurt them.

The sentiment was...confusing, if not useful. I made it quick.

\--

My uncle had not taken power alone. His wife, Sulpicia, and his sister, Didyme, had joined us. Didyme’s beloved husband, Marcus, followed as well, but was well-protected and sheltered by my aunt’s new guards. The final two, Caius and Athenodora, seemed to tag along solely for the power offered. Athenodora spoke hardly a word, but every thought out of Caius’ mouth was obviously one agreed between the two of them, and so the man was careful with his words.

My uncle left me alive because I was a useful tool, and because he loved me. I was a reminder of a city he’d burned, another creation he’d saved and lovingly tended, a rose with thorns grown larger than the beautiful blossom. He left with me the choice to choose my mate, and we continued on through larger cities, with more and more humans with droning thoughts and buzzing, buzzing secrets. 

I could hear them all. I directed the entourage towards the most discrete prey: small missing children, older humans, the disappearance of which no one would notice. 

An assassin among our own group rose in opposition of my uncle years after our own city fell, and I knew the moment he’d decided harm on my beloved uncle. He didn’t last an hour, and when I dragged the pieces to my uncle’s rooms and set them ablaze at the foot of his throne, offering my hand voluntarily to prove my allegiance once and for all, he took it and smiled something bloody. My aunts, Sulpicia and Didyme, had smelled the flame and joined us, Marcus and his guards in tow. Hearing what the dissenter had planned and how I had stopped him, Didyme’s eyes shot quickly to her beloved, gentle husband and she worried. I was immediate in kneeling and offering all in the room my protection for as long as we all shall live. 

And so mote it be.

\--

Jane and Alec are pleasant surprises. They are bruised fruit, soft and missing pieces but spoiling. The humans don’t know the gift they’ve been given in these two, but I do. I go to them, smile at them, promise them the world if they will give me what I desire, and they come willingly into the fold. We burn their town soon after, and watching the flames dance on their faces as they smile stirs something maternally inside me.

These are my children. Unlike my blood kin, I would die for these two the way I would raze the world for my uncles and aunts.

When Aro feels this later, he is unconcerned. The two are welcomed among us at my side, as mine.

\--

We have a court and courtiers. The guard numbers many, so many minds for me to peek into and monitor. I’ve learned a useful trick: reaching inside and crushing them, shattering anything left inside. It is a trick I save for the direst of circumstances but one I have had to use far too many times. 

One of those was when a male did not recognize me. He was new to the Volturi’s guard and I had not yet been introduced without my veil, the fabric that hid my visage from those who came to beg boons of the Volturi. He wanted to bed me, to use me like that man did all those years ago.

I didn’t kill him. Jane had been wanting test subjects, and when Aro read the incident from my mind he sneered and ordered the man excised from the guard forever. Jane’s delightful little grin widened.

\--

There is a small town in America where my uncle’s friend, Carlisle Cullen, has gathered the attention and enmity from a male and his mate. There is a third, but he is a coward and ran at the mention of the Volturi. Carlisle does not want to kill him without reason, but is loath to allow any of his family to suffer at this hands of the pair and so, he has sent a letter to us.

My uncle is fond of this man, and I remember no duplicity in his mind all those years ago, so he sends myself and my children as a sign of goodwill. 

The pair’s target is the newest addition to the Cullens, a pair themselves. Jasper and Alice.

We arrive on the doorstep of the Cullens with our hoods intact. In the woods, wolves linger to glare and pace. It is odd, especially with the sensation of thoughts shuddering through a sort of net. If given the time, I would love to study those beings, and send the thought to Jane, that she might hold it for me. My darling girl nods to me in acquiescence. 

Carlisle welcomes us into his home graciously, and we go through the customary greeting: forearms meeting, temples nearly touching, eyes peering into the other’s. He does not bother to be vocal, knowing that I prefer the silence of thoughts instead, and has advised his family on this as well. Jane and Alec stand sentry by the door, content to await my leadership. 

_ Bella _ , Carlisle greets, and I may count the number allowed to call me thus on my two hands and leave the thumbs untouched.  _ They are called James and Victoria. The third is Laurent, but we have heard nothing of him since he came to warn us of the danger the mated pair presented. Something of Alice reminded him of an unfinished hunt, and he has been pursuing us all ever since. I had hoped to handle this quietly, but he has begun to get dangerously close to revealing us, so I felt the need to inform you and your family. _

Carlisle is the only one to refer to the Volturi as such. Aro allows it due to his friendship with the man, and thus I am loath to dissuade him, but it rankles to think of the guard as my family. However, I content myself with the thoughts of my true family: my uncles and aunts, my children.

His explanation, however, is satisfactory. I turn to proceed to the door, eager to get the task done for my uncle’s friend, but Carlisle stops me with a mental nudge. I turn to him immediately, curious.

_ One of us has a modicum of your talent, Bella. I was hoping you might be persuaded to give him a few tips? _ He nods to the one he means, his eldest child. The boy is bronzed and deft; I can feel his uncontrolled attempts to breach my shields like a constant tapping to the shoulder. I nod, but make it known that any lessons will wait until the task has been completed.

\--

Victoria and her vindictive mate lay shattered at Carlisle’s feet in two days’ time. The boy is taught to raise and lower his own shields as he feels necessary, and I step out into the forest for a side trip. Jane and Alec trail behind me, our hoods up and senses, formidable as they are, alert.

The wolves are cautious but seem unwilling to be the first to cause harm. There are trails of thoughts, some indicating animal instincts and others human behavioral patterns. One of the wolves approaches me slowly, tail lowered but sedately shifting side-to-side, like a dog’s wagging tail. I catch a moment of chastisement echoing through the net before it is gone, but it is enough.

After more than 3 centuries of silence, I speak.

“You are not wolves,” I say, and Jane and Alec snarl at the detached montone of my voice. Vampires do not change, and thus my voice is unaffected by its lack of use in all that time: it is velvet, but my tone dulls it.

The wolves seem to ripple. A thought booms between them, a feeling:  **you are not human** .

“No,” I agree, and curtsey. There is little to tell but the truth.

One of them trots up behind my willing dog and her bones crack as she becomes a woman again. 

“A pale one,” she says, her lips curling. At this, I do not speak. “One that’s inside our heads, just like the other one in there,” she points to Carlisle’s residence.

“I am a member of the Volturi, Isabella, niece of Aro and Sulpicia, Didyme and Marcus, and protector of the inner circle. You are?” I ask, because introductions are important, and I like this girl. I couldn’t say why, however.

“Leah.” She says, eyebrow raised. The fading sunlight twists across her bare stomach, caramelized and muscular. I gesture behind me, to my children. 

“Jane and Alec, my children,” I tell her, and the twins preen at this naming. They are loyal and gifted and understanding, everything a mother could ever want, and are willing to kill anything that even looks at me in a way I don’t like. It is unnecessary, of course: with my trick, I am far faster than either of them, agile Jane or creeping Alec, but it is the thought that counts. “Your minds interest me,” I add, because that is why I came. 

Leah’s grin is entirely teeth.

The shivering thing inside of me solidifies, what she’s feeling, what I’ve realized-

Mate.

\--

I meet her parents. Her mother refuses to leave the house, even after Leah goes to convince her, which is fine. I can hear her perfectly well from here, which satisfies my predatory, protective instincts. 

I have sent the feeling to my children and am glad to know they feel the same on this as they will every other part of my life: what is mine is theirs to protect and care for. Jane is examining the house and mentally revising a list of security breaches, which makes me proud. Alec is play-wrestling with Leah’s pack-brothers gently, careful to avoid damaging them too much, and I am watching with careful eyes when Leah drags her mother out into the sunlight. 

“Hello, Ms. Clearwater,” I greet, extending a hand to hold hers and bending to kiss the knuckle as tradition demands. It is not often a vampire is able to meet their mate’s true parents, though sires are an acceptable second. 

Leah’s mother blushes from a mixture of terror and awe.

\--

It takes time, but eventually I take Leah to present to Aro and my aunts. Marcus sits dutifully on his cushion, allowing Didyme to pet his hair and pour his blood for him, as I introduce her.

I have never asked my uncle for anything that did not directly benefit the Volturi, and he knows this. He knows I love him, and that I would never have chosen a mate that would tear us apart, and so he trusts me in this. 

I must return to La Push with Leah, Jane and Alec trailing dutifully behind me, but we stay the night in the Volturi compound so that Leah can rest. She spends every moment here, besides the one in front of Aro, in her wolf form, which I do not begrudge her. She has the right to feel safe in any form she takes, and knows that I will do my best to make sure she never enters a dangerous situation alone. 

The one trouble is Caius. The guard has lived under my direct leadership for centuries and understands my orders will protect the safety and sanctity of the inner circle (including my uncles and aunts, myself (and Leah, now), Jane and Alec, and then the guests of any of these persons, in that order) and thus, don’t question me. Athenodora could care less as to my actions so long as they are sanctioned by the inner circle, which they are, so Caius’ attacks lack their thoughtful, poisonous edge, but Caius harbors a special hatred for Children of the Moon, which Leah is not. Caius simply refuses to be convinced of this fact.

I have never liked him.

When he confronts me in the hall, on my way to the feast, I react quickly, harshly. I reach into his mind and forcefully correct his thoughts of Leah, changing her species in his mind until it echoes my own. I shall have to report to Aro for this later, but no matter. It had to be done, and it shouldn’t affect any other part of Caius’ psyche.

He blinks despite the lack of need. “...ah,” he says, turning to march to the feast. I follow, veil hanging steadily over my growing grin.

\--

Vampires who attack La Push are dealt with swiftly. My children take to this task with surprising bloodthirstiness, and tales soon spread. The pack does not begrudge me my runs with Leah, and over the years I petition my uncle for a child. Not an immortal one; a hybrid, a child of both myself and Leah. They have discovered a vampire with such a gift and the poor woman is swamped with requests already, but at Aro’s request she moves us to the front. Our darling child is born with hair like the clear night sky and skin the color of rich loam; her eyes are a dizzying, violent amber, the shade between Leah’s and mine on animal blood. Her gift is strong: she can project images of her thoughts into the air the way I project thoughts into others’ heads. She runs with Leah and learns ways to use her gift to her benefit with me. Jane is her self-appointed bodyguard, and Alec is her wild pet of a friend.

She tames the wolves to run among them with us and adores her great uncles and aunts, telling them stories and showing them pictures with her mind, and I am the happiest I have ever been.

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers:  
> -her daughter's name  
> -her original city (I don't know enough or do enough research to know enough, so)  
> -her exact age (a website said the Volturi was at least three thousand years old, but)  
> -her kids' names and genders (mostly cause it wasn't plot-important)
> 
> Please let me know if you feel this needs more tags or warnings or something.


End file.
